Estimated turnout was 72%, with Ed Garline leading with 54.4% and Massey with 45.6%.
President Donald Trump is tightening his grip on the Republican Party as Kentucky voters oust one of the few conservative lawmakers who openly challenges his authority.
Rep. Thomas Massie’s loss, heralded by U.S. news networks including NBC and CNN about two hours after polls closed on Tuesday, marks another victory in President Trump’s campaign to chastise dissent within the Republican Party.
Recommended stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
With an estimated 72% of votes counted, former Navy SEAL Ed Garrein led with 54.4% of the vote and Massey with 45.6%.
The Associated Press called the race for Mr. Galine, whose campaign received support from Mr. Trump and millions of dollars in support from pro-Trump and pro-Israel political lobby groups.
The contest was widely heralded as the most expensive House primary in U.S. history, with more than $32 million spent on advertising and the latest evidence of President Trump’s control of the Republican Party. This comes after another Trump critic, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, suffered his first defeat on Saturday, as well as the loss of an opposing Republican state representative in Indiana earlier this month.
“Massey has been Trumped. Donald Trump is the sun, moon and star of the Kentucky Republican Party,” said TJ Ritafik, a Kentucky-based Republican strategist.
Testing Trump’s influence
The vote in Kentucky was closely watched as a test of whether Trump’s approval ratings among Republican voters remain strong despite concerns about his war with Iran, rising inflation and declining personal approval ratings, and whether there is still room within the party for lawmakers willing to break with him.
Massey had angered Trump by opposing U.S. military action in Iran and Venezuela, criticizing support for Israel, resisting some of the president’s policies and supporting efforts to release files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The president spent months attacking Mr. Massey, a seven-term libertarian-leaning congressman, calling him a “fool,” a “head of a business,” and a “huge scumbag.”
“He’s been treated really badly. I don’t think he’s a Republican… He’s not a liberal,” Trump told reporters after polls opened Tuesday.
“Sometimes people say he’s a really stupid asshole. He always votes against us,” Trump said, using the nickname he often uses for Democrats.
“I have no intention of opposing President Trump.”
In the northern Kentucky city of Covington, Rob Berkley, a former Trump supporter who supported Massey, said the president’s attacks had brought him closer to the congressman.
“He’s on the Republican side, so he has conservative views,” Barclay told US media after the vote.
“But he doesn’t lean as far to the far right as Trump’s politics,” he said.
Massey, who voted for Trump about 90 percent of the time during his second term, cast the race as a broader test of independence within the Republican Party.
“I’m not against President Trump. Most of the people who are voting for me support President Trump, just like I do,” Massey said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also made a rare appearance in Massey’s constituency on Monday to campaign for Mr Gullane.
Federal law restricts public employees from participating in partisan political activities while on the job, but Hegseth’s office said he attended in his personal capacity and no tax dollars were used.
President Trump later revealed that Hegseth’s campaign appearance came hours before he expected the United States to launch a new military strike against Iran, but that the operation was later postponed.
Several U.S. states, including Georgia and Pennsylvania, held their primaries on Tuesday ahead of November’s midterm elections, but Kentucky’s race emerged as one of the most closely watched races of the night.
Massey, who was first elected in 2012, has long been one of President Trump’s most persistent Republican critics.
